1. David Ferdinand Durenberger was an American politician and attorney from Minnesota who served as a Republican member of the United States Senate from 1978 to 1995.
23 Facts About David Durenberger
1. 2.
David Durenberger left the Republican Party in 2005 and became a critic of it, endorsing Democratic presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in 2016 and 2020, respectively.
3.
David Durenberger was a Roman Catholic of German and Polish descent.
4.
David Durenberger's father was the athletic director and a coach at College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and the family lived on campus.
5.
David Durenberger graduated from St John's Preparatory School there in 1951, and from the university in 1955.
6.
David Durenberger attended the University of Minnesota Law School and earned his Juris Doctor in 1959.
7.
LeVander, a Republican, was elected governor of Minnesota in 1966 and took office in January 1967, and David Durenberger became his executive secretary from then until the end of LeVander's term in 1971.
8.
David Durenberger served as chair of the Metropolitan Open Space Advisory Board from 1972 to 1974 and was on the Minnesota State Ethical Practices Board from 1974 to 1978.
9.
On November 7,1978, David Durenberger was elected to the United States Senate in a special election to complete the unexpired term of Senator Hubert Humphrey, who died earlier in the year; Humphrey's wife Muriel Humphrey held the seat until David Durenberger's election.
10.
David Durenberger was reelected in 1982 and again in 1988, defeating Mark Dayton and Minnesota Attorney General Skip Humphrey, respectively.
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David Durenberger chaired the Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee, led President Ronald Reagan's New Federalism effort in 1982, and was a 14-year member of the Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations.
12.
David Durenberger voted for the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr.
13.
David Durenberger voted to confirm Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States.
14.
David Durenberger did not run for reelection in 1994 and was succeeded by Rod Grams.
15.
David Durenberger said that Democrats are better equipped to handle health care and that President George W Bush was wrong about the Iraq War.
16.
In 2010, David Durenberger endorsed his former chief of staff, Independence-Alliance Party member Tom Horner, for governor.
17.
David Durenberger chaired the National Institute of Health Policy and was a Senior Health Policy Fellow at the University of St Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
18.
David Durenberger served on the board of National Coalition on HealthCare.
19.
David Durenberger has served on national health commissions and boards, including the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and Board of the National Commission on Quality Assurance, and the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.
20.
David Durenberger endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president in 2020.
21.
David Durenberger was a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.
22.
David Durenberger married his second wife, Penny, in 1971; they separated in 1985 and divorced in 1993.
23.
David Durenberger died of heart failure at home in St Paul on January 31,2023, at age 88.